The disclosure relates to a centrifuge operation information collecting system using a plurality of centrifuges having a function of rotating a rotor with a set sample at high speed, and a data managing apparatus collecting operation data from the centrifuges through a network.
In a manufacturing process of a vaccine or medicine, a centrifuge is used to separate a virus, a cultured cell, and cultured bacteria from a raw material. In addition, blood sampled by blood donation is brought together in a blood center, and a centrifuge is used for its pretreatment in medicine manufacturing and formulation. In the past, for the manufacturing of a vaccine or a medicine, manufacturing standards for aspects of software and hardware, called GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice), were established, and the vaccine or medicine should be manufactured under a facility or management based on GMP. In order to meet the demands of GMP, a large amount of data for managing all the processes including the centrifuge is needed, and these data items are forced to be kept on paper.
For example, according to the demands of the GMP, information on who operated the centrifuge under what conditions, setting states such as the number of rotations, temperature, and an operation period of a centrifuge, and an operation state are managed. In a case where an operator only leaves data recorded on paper, it is difficult to completely prevent human mistakes, such as a recording mistake or an omission. In order to solve the inconvenience caused by the storage of data using paper, guidelines which allow managing electronic data as a formal record instead of paper (for example, chapter 11, article 21 of Federal Regulations: guidelines for electronic recording and electronic signature) have been established so that the operation records of a centrifuge can be stored as electronic data.
In order to perform electronic recording based on the above guidelines, a method of performing recording by connecting one data managing apparatus to one centrifuge or a method of collectively managing the operation information of a plurality of centrifuges by one data managing apparatus manages is known. As an example of the method of connecting one data managing apparatus to one centrifuge, a technique disclosed in JP2000-246147A is known. However, when a few to dozens centrifuges are used in medicine manufacturing or formulation work, it is uneconomical to prepare one data managing apparatus for each centrifuge in terms of cost or installation locations. Accordingly, it is preferable that one data managing apparatus manages the operation information collectively.
In the technique disclosed in JP2000-246147A, a centrifuge and a data managing apparatus (information acquisition apparatus), which monitors an operation state of the centrifuge, are connected to each other in a one-to-one manner. However, it is difficult for the data managing apparatus to monitor a plurality of centrifuges simultaneously using this technique. Moreover, in the technique disclosed in JP2000-246147A, an information analyzer connected to the information acquisition apparatus through a LAN is provided. However, this information analyzer communicates with a data managing apparatus only when a centrifuge is not operating or when the lifespan of a driving unit or a rotor is approaching its end or ends. For this reason, this is not a technique for performing remote collection of operation state data in real time.
In addition, an operation information collecting system which uses one data managing apparatus to monitor operation states of a plurality of centrifuges connected to the data managing apparatus through a network has also been proposed. The flow chart in FIG. 9 shows the processing procedure of a data managing apparatus in such a method. Referring to FIG. 9, when one data managing apparatus manages a plurality of centrifuges, the data managing apparatus determines one of the plurality of managed centrifuges (step 101) and transmits a request for transmission of operation data to the determined centrifuge through a network (step 102). The centrifuge which has received the transmission request for operation data collects the operation data at that time and converts it into operation data with a predetermined format and then transmits it to the data managing apparatus. The data managing apparatus receives the operation data transmitted from the centrifuge (step 103) and stores the operation data in a storage device of the data managing apparatus (step 104). Then, the process returns to step 101 to manage the plurality of centrifuges while changing the target centrifuge in a sequential manner.